Robert Mentzer column: Sooner or later, gay marriage will prevail

Nov. 13, 2012

Whitney Young, left, embraces her partner Marlena Blonsky as they listen to speeches at an election watch party for proponents of Referendum 74, which would uphold the state's new same-sex marriage law, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, in Seattle. / AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Revelers kiss as they celebrate early election returns favoring Washington state Referendum 74, which would legalize gay marriage, during a large impromptu street gathering in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, in the early hours of Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012. The re-election of President Barack Obama and Referendum 74 drew the most supporters to the streets. / AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

Anthony Streiff, left, Alex Sand and Nam Dorjee, all of Minneapolis, are in tears when it is announced that voters had rejected a proposed amendments to Minnesota's Constitution, to ban gay marriage, at an Minnesotans United for All Families election night event in St. Paul, Minn., early Wednesday morning, Nov. 7, 2012. / AP Photo/Pioneer Press, Jean Pieri

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I put Katie Belanger, executive director of the gay rights advocacy group Fair Wisconsin, on the spot. How long, I asked her this week, until gay marriage is legal in Wisconsin?

“I would not be surprised,” she said, “if our state’s constitutional amendment was off the books in the next 10 years.”

Why so long? Last week, Wisconsin elected the first openly gay U.S. senator in the nation’s history in Tammy Baldwin. The same night saw the success in Maine, Maryland and Washington of ballot initiatives to legalize gay marriage, and an anti-gay marriage amendment defeated in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, opinion polls show that Wisconsin is moving in the same direction as the rest of the nation: toward marriage equality.

There’s just one problem. In 2006, Wisconsin passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. That means even as public opinion shifts, advocates like Belanger are faced with the laborious process of re-amending it. (Civics refresher: A new amendment to the state Constitution must pass in two consecutive sessions of the Legislature and then by statewide ballot initiative.) That’s a five-year process at a minimum, Belanger notes — and no one seems to think the state GOP, which controls the Legislature and governor’s mansion, will start that process anytime soon.

Change in tone

Still, Belanger does not despair.

“We’re not at a point where we have bipartisan support for advancing equality,” she said. “But we don’t have the negative attacks we’ve seen in the past.”

In fact, Belanger said, consider the menu of policies Republicans took up when they gained control in 2011. It wasn’t just collective bargaining and budget-cutting. Republicans waded into debates about sex education, abortion and birth control. (Some proposed legislation, to be sure, didn’t get far.)

And while the gay-rights movement has in some sense been part of the Democratic Party’s coalition for years, Belanger noted that it was only this year that Democrats actually made marriage equality part of the party’s platform. The point is that politicians always have to be dragged along.

Fair Wisconsin “would welcome anyone who wanted to take a stance for marriage equality,” Belanger said. “We know we won’t achieve full equality without a bipartisan group. ... We are very interested in building relationships with members of both parties.”

My own views on this are pretty typical for someone younger than 40. (I’m 33.) It is not a complicated issue to me: Marriage is a civil right, gay people deserve marriage rights and that’s that. I’m also of the view that permitting gay marriage is essentially a conservative, pro-family sort of reform, and I suspect this is part of the reason public opinion around the issue has changed so rapidly. (By the way, these are my own views. The Wausau Daily Herald Editorial Board hasn’t taken up this issue.)

So here’s some free political advice: Wisconsin Republicans should get in front of this issue. Public opinion is not going to stop moving in the direction of equality. The constitutional amendment that passed in 2004 would never pass here in 2012 — and it won’t be long until a pro-gay marriage amendment will command a true majority.

And if the Republican Party is looking for ways to broaden its appeal in the wake of losses last week, this issue would seem to be low-hanging fruit, especially when it comes to winning young voters.

Local measures

Unless and until the Republican Party comes around, Belanger said Fair Wisconsin is focused on local iniatives, like the one passed in Appleton last year to offer domestic partner benefits to city employees. Janesville — Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s hometown of Janesville — just passed a similar measure Monday.

Belanger said the point of policies like these is not just to extend protections to employees, though that is important. They also send a message about what kind of city it is, what attitude it takes toward inclusion of all residents.